With the beginning of Global Pride month, Google Doodle is paying tribute to American Gay Rights Activist Dr. Frank Kameny. In the doodle, Kameny is seen wearing a colorful garland. He is known as one of the most prominent people from the US LGBTQ rights movement. In fact, he is recognized as the pioneer of gay rights. Google has thanked the activist for courageously paving the way for decades of progress.
Born in Queens, New York on May 21 in 1925, Frank Edward Kameny was an astronomer and World War II veteran too by profession. He started studying Physics at the age of 15. His studies got disturbed after he started serving in the army during World War II in Europe. In 1948, after returning from Army, he pursued graduation with a baccalaureate in Physics from Queens College. He also obtained a doctorate in astronomy in 1956 from Harvard University. His thesis was titled as- A photoelectric Study of Some RV Tauri and Yellow semiregular variables. He later served as a teacher in Astronomy at Georgetown University for a year.
In 1957, he got an offer from the US government for a job as an astronomer with Army map service which he accepted happily. But little did he know that he will be fired from the job just because of his homosexuality. The government banned LGBTQ community members from federal employment due to which Kameny lost his job.
After this incident, Kameny took to Supreme Court. Long before the Stonewall movement, Kameny in 1965 with 10 others organized a protest outside the White House. It is considered the first gay rights protest. A protest at Pentagon was also staged by Kameny after his first protest. He also constituted the first gay rights advocacy groups.
Frank Kameny questioned the American Psychiatric Association’s classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder and got successful in reversing this. In 1971, Kameny contested elections in the US Congress and became the first gay to do so. He did not win the elections but created the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Washington DC, which till today fights for equal rights of the LGBTQ community. In 1975, Kameny triumphant the ban on LGBTQ employees in the Civil service Commission.
It was in the year 2009 that Kameny received an official apology from the US government for his dismissal which happened 50 years ago. In 2010, he was honored by Washington DC after they named a stretch of 17th Street NW near Dupont Circle as ‘Frank Kameny way.’ In 2011, at the age of 86, Kameny succumbed to natural death in Washington DC. A phrase that reads ‘Gay is Good’ is found written in front of his cemetery.
